Who's Coming with Me?​August 2017

​It started as an idea, and blossomed into a reality, and now you are pondering if you are able to get out of the rat race, and do this full time. Your early success instills confidence in you, but yet you are apprehensive about giving up the reliable salary, and benefits. Will I continue to be successful? What will happen if I am not?If you think the answer to this question solely lies in whether or not you are making comparable income, you are wrong. The answer is a bit more complex. Surprisingly, 80% of new businesses survive their first year; that number drops to 50% at five years, and only 33% at the ten year marker. (source: https://www.fool.com/careers/2017/05/03/what-percentage-of-businesses-fail-in-their-first.aspx). Therefore, you should not be concerned about the immediate future, but your long term future.The great Mia Hamm said, “The backbone of success is...hard work, determination, good planning, and perserverence”. If you are at the point of deciding to leave your 9-5, you already have proven you are a hard worker and are determined (as you have been working two jobs simultaneously). However, the true test is when your business goes through a tough time, as all businesses inevitably do, are you prepared (speaking to the planning part), and are you able to persevere.Real estate has and always will be an evolving sector. There are multiple influencers that impact real estate, and therefore the ability to earn an income. Obviously the safest bet is to hedge your bets by creating multiple revenue streams within your business to establish a safeguard against these variables. This point specifically helps with your planning, as all of the other elements Hamm references are directly related to your personality.The next time you think to yourself that you want to make the move to self-employment, don’t only think will I make enough money the first year to live. Instead, ask yourself what am I going to do to be successful at year 1, year 5, year 10, and every year in between! If you are able to answer this question, then congratulations you have the ingredients to leave your 9-5 and be self-employed.